Crying Fairy

Seeing Scarlett's fairy form, Emmy dramatically took deep breaths and, a second later, began to cry. 

Both Scarlett and Ethan were startled. 

"What happened?" Ethan asked soothingly.

Emmy sobbed, and crystalline droplets of her tears fell on the cave. She sniffed. 

"Emmy's wings were cut by her father when she was young. Everyone in our Spirit Race has our wings cut at a young age…" Her emerald pupils grew blurry for a second before she moved closer to Scarlett and touched her wings. 

They both actually had similar levels of body strength now, too. Scarlett was bigger than Emmy by two fingers, so she was stronger but Emmy was not so strong to be able to hurt Scarlett. Indeed, having moved into this new world had made their bodies trashy.

On another note, no matter how cute the girl looked, to Ethan, she might as well be a threat in hiding. No matter how carefree he looked, there was no way he would let themselves be in danger without thinking. His Dimensional Senses were always active just in case he had to teleport something.

He loved the girl's cute appearance but he was also cautious of her. The most beautiful things were always the deadliest. He didn't want to regret later.

Emmy touched Scarlett's butterfly wings, and her tears became even more evident. "Emmy's Ancestors were villains, and people outside threw us into the walls, we are not allowed to cultivate too. All of my family's people have torn or cut away their wings. My mother also said Emmy will have to cut the wings of Emmy's child too when she has one."

Ethan thought about it and had a small picture of the events drawn in his mind. 

So people who went against the law were thrown inside that great dark wall he saw yesterday? 

The walls were covered in Spirit Formations, too, so this was a kind of prison. 

If so, it was a prison where even the descendants of the culprit would have to live with even more bindings, like having to cut their own wings and not being allowed to cultivate. He had to learn more of that.

And indeed, she must be crying because it was the first time she saw a fairy with wings—Even though Scarlett was not one. 

He nudged Scarlett on the head, making her return to her human form while feeling guilty. Did she make the little thing cry?

Emmy was still crying but much more relaxed around them now. Ethan tried to stray away from the talk of wings for now.

"So, are there any other intelligent races like your Spirit Race in this black forest?" he asked with a sigh.

The girl nodded, her tears trickling down. "There are you people humans who stay underground. Then there are Storm Dreamers, which are deadly creatures that only appear at night with storms, and they fear light."

Inside the cavern was barely alit, and it was still early in the morning. They gave the girl a long minute to calm herself and then began to converse about this world. They needed information and she was a bundle of information for them.

She spoke about some of the simple things like the weather. How it was cold at night and hot in the mornings. How there would be storms once in a while when the Storm Dreamers would attack people who are outside, and so on and so forth. 

Ethan translated the words for Scarlett too.

He thought for a while before asking another thing, "Emmy, I need some things. Do you think you can get them for me?"

He showed her the materials needed for a Pill of Comprehension in a book that was lying around the ground. It was written in the language of this world, which Scarlett was still unfamiliar with, but Emmy could read it. 

Of course, Ethan only showed her the names of the materials, not the way to refine the pill. That could lead to being a danger if the pill was something miraculous. In his guess, anything that came from Gu Yuntian could be miraculous. 

After all, the man's master had brought them here from a different world. The man was literally an old monster who had lived for centuries, too.

Emmy wiped her tears. "Emmy doesn't know that but her grandfather does. He would be coming here to save me anytime now; Emmy didn't tell you earlier because Emmy was afraid of you, but he would be here soon."

Ethan's face changed slightly. "Is your grandfather strong?"

Emmy nodded. 

"He is one of the only 3 cultivators inside the walls. He is very strong but also very gentle, he won't hurt you as long as you don't hurt Emmy."

Ethan was still cautious but he had some trust in his own strength even though his physical body was disastrously weak now. His strength came from his Dimensional Travels after all. He believed he could at the least run away if it came to it.

Yet, he was still nervous. He had seen Gu Yuntian, so he was putting all cultivators on a very high pedestal in his heart. Regardless, silently, he patted Emmy's head with a finger and placed a Dimensional Marking on it. If he had to, he could pop her head using a Teleport as long as she was close to him.

He felt really bad to do something like this, but he couldn't really trust some stranger in a different world, right?

He still hoped he wouldn't have to resort to such a thing. He hoped he wouldn't even have to use the hostage game. She really was quite a naive girl, he didn't want to hurt her for no reason. But want and need was a different word.

Sadly so at times. He hoped this was not one of those times.